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Caregiving Assistance Provided to Older Adults With and Without Dementia and Disability

Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: Studies examining the relationship between informal caregiving and caregiver burden have largely focused on samples defined by disease or disability, and on the provision of disability-related assistance. This study characterizes a broad range of caregiving activities provided to a nationally-representative sample of community-dwelling older adults. Participants were the primary caregivers (N=1,342) of individuals enrolled in the 2011 National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) who responded to the associated National Study of Caregiving (NSOC). We estimated the prevalence of and associations between the number of tasks within three domains of assistance (instrumental activities of daily living (IADL)-related, health management, health systems logistics) and caregiver burden among caregivers of four groups of older adults: those with dementia and disability (n=261), dementia but not disability (n=230), disability but not dementia (n=229), no dementia or disability (n=622). Caregiver burden was a composite measure of caregivers’ emotional, physical and financial difficulties (dichotomized into any vs. no burden). Within each group, caregivers provided assistance with at least one task across domains of IADL-related assistance (>98%), health systems logistics (>78%), and health management (>54%). Unadjusted analyses using the Mantel-Haenszel trend test showed a significant linear association (p<.05) between the number of tasks provided and a higher risk of burden across the four groups for all but one domain in one group. These findings underscore the need for future research that addresses the full scope of assistance provided by caregivers to a broad spectrum of older persons, and call for an expanded conceptualization of the caregiver role.
DOI: 10.1093/geroni/igx004.557
Language: English
Subfield: Pharmacy
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,977
OpenAlex ID: W2740944151
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